The Kings opted not to take a morning skate today, largely due to the 5pm start for Game 1. However, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, and coach Darryl Sutter were made available to the media. Brown’s quotes have already been posted here. Below are thoughts from Kopitar…
On the time off between the first and second round of the playoffs:
“It’s a little bit of a waiting game, but it’s also nice to get a couple days and settle down again and prepare and get ready for tonight.”
On resetting after the first playoff series:
“It takes a day or two, but then you want to get it going again. Especially because we feel like we were playing pretty good the last couple of games, so you want to get back at it again.”
On momentum from the series against San Jose that will carry over to this series:
“I don’t know about momentum, or, yeah I guess and the confidence factor is there too. Again, we played some pretty good hockey towards the end of that series so we just want to carry it and build on it into the next one.”
On the first playoff series between Los Angeles and Anaheim being special:
“No. It’s just normal routine, normal preparation. Nothing special.”
On Matt Greene handling not being in the lineup regularly in the second half of the regular season:
“I’m sure he wasn’t happy that he didn’t play for a long time, but he was always ready to step in and he did in a big way towards the end of the season and these last couple games of the series. He’s obviously a huge part. He knows it. Everybody knows it. It’s good for everybody right now.”
On Dustin Brown’s game changing in the playoffs:
“I think ever since he came back from Sochi he had a little bit of step in his game. He’s been playing good hockey and he’s been taking it to the next level, as usual, in the playoffs. It’s obviously great to see him because we need him playing that way.”
On using their size to their advantage against Anaheim:
“I don’t think we’re going to play any different than we did the first series. I think they’re built pretty similar. They have some big bodies and lots of skill, obviously, throughout their lineup. Our game is not going to change a whole lot. We’re just going to try and do the exact same thing as our plan was in the first series. [Reporter: Except maybe not fall behind 0-3?] That would be a yes. [Reporter: So not the exact same way.] Yeah, but if we did that four series in a row I’d take it too. I would play that many games. I don’t care.”
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